"Little Buddhist monks" - child novices (photos)

Eds., Wisdom Quarterly; Dietmar Temps (dietmartemps.com, DeepBlue66/flickr.com)

Novitiate initiation in Pagan, Burma (Bagan, Myanmar)

Dressed like Prince Rahula

For a boy in Burma it is customary to enter a Buddhist monastery as a novice (samanera, "little ascetic") between the ages of 7-20.
 
One has his head shaven and vows to adhere to ten precepts (rather than the monks' 227 rules) for at least a week.

The renunciation ceremony

Sometimes the boys are even younger, in rare cases only 5 or 6 years old. For Burmese people, the novitiate initiation is a very important ceremony and a big event for the family.

The temporary ordination ceremony is called Shinbyu in Burmese. The practice is not limited to Theravada Buddhists in Southeast Asia but is practiced throughout the Buddhist world except in Sri Lanka where temporary ordination is not done. The first Buddhist novice was the Buddha's son, Prince Rahula, who became a monastic at age 7.

The first novice

Rahula, his father the Buddha, and Ananda

Rāhula (who lived at least 25 centuries ago) was the only son of Prince Siddhartha Gautama (who later became the ascetic Siddhartha and then the Buddha) and his wife Bimba-devi (who is known to the world as Princess Yasodharā then the Buddhist nun Ven. Bhaddakaccānā). He was the first child to become a Buddhist novice (samanera) at his father's behest. One account of his life is given in the Pāli language canon. More

Bang the gong not the tympani, venerable. I'll ring the bell, handle the vajra. You guys chant.

Vajrayana child novices enjoy temporary ordination throughout the Himalayas -- in India (Ladakh, Dharmsala, AP, HP, Sikkim...), Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, China (dietmartemps.com)

Dietmar Temps is a world class photographer who travels the globe to bring to light cultures and kids rapidly fading into memory due to Western hegemony and the homogenization of the planet (dietmartemps.com).

Gays can be Thai Buddhist monks? (video)

Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; LGBTweekly.com

THAILAND - A Thai Buddhist monk who is gay and a former cross-dresser [a third gender kathoey] has gone on public television to say there is nothing wrong with gay people becoming Buddhist monks, causing much controversy in Thailand where [Theravada] Buddhism is the primary religion and has special status, reports GayAsiaNews.com.

“I am who I am, and I’m not going to pretend just to fit in,”  Ven. Tanaisawan George Chandhadhammo, 28, told Woody Talk, a popular MCOT talk show. “Gay people can make good monks too,” he said.

 

"I am who I am" [deal with it, fellow monastics]

His interview had led Thai censors to stop the segment of the popular Thai television talk show from being aired. The interview was not broadcast last month. However, it was finally allowed to air on TV recently, announced bangkok.coconuts.co.

 

The popular MCOT talk show host, Woody Milintachinda (shown above being splashed with pink liquid), revealed on Facebook that they had to postpone its “Gay Monk” interview segment because censors had objected:

 

“Apologies to our audience. Woody Talk has to postpone the broadcast of the ‘Gay Monk’ interview because the Censorship Committee is evaluating its appropriateness. The tape contains some hot issues!” the post says.

 

With 44,000 views, the episode’s teaser provided a few quotes from the young monk [likely NOT a "monk" but only a "novice," who would be restricted by far fewer rules than a fully-ordained Buddhist bhikkhu, as Monastic Disciplinary Code rules do not allow kathoeys or "pandakas" to be fully ordained], who discusses trying to be a gay monastic.

• See Thai Buddhism going GAY Catholic? for Wisdom Quarterly analysis and commentary on the issue

The crux of the interview was whether it is appropriate for a man who is openly gay and has strong faith in Buddhism can choose to become a monk.

 

Ven. Chandhadhammo or George used to be a medical student and dressed like a woman publicly. [Kathoeys or "Lady-Boys" are a common feature of Thai society, who are often flamboyant sex workers/prostitutes or authentic "beauty queens" with entire pageants dedicated to them with parental participation and pride as well as mainstream media coverage.]

 

Now he practices Buddhism at Vivegvanaram Monastery in Hat Yai, Songkhla province, southern Thailand.

• Hat Yai Nai Temple (Wat) is home to the third largest reclining Buddha statue on the planet, an impressive sight that leaves one in awe. People travel from all over Thailand to pay respect to this statue. After the three-month monastic Rains Retreat ends, a big Buddhist festival specific to Southern Thailand called Chak Phra takes place with large floats or "Buddha boat" processions, sports events like a run up Khao Tang Kuan hill, and more extreme events. One of the most extreme festivals in the world is also in the south celebrated among Thai Chinese called the Vegetarian Festival or Nine Emperor [Space] Gods Festival where young pen pierce themselves with bloody swords and hooks in a great S&M-like display magically with no pain. During the Chinese Lunar Festival (as the south has a large Chinese population as well as a significant Muslim population influenced by neighboring Islamic Malaysia), the Thai and Chinese present their offerings to the Moon (Luna, Chandra) or Queen of the Heavens in gratitude for past and future fortunes.

Known for his sharp religious homilies Ven. George is loved and revered by locals in the area. Religion is a very sensitive issue that the Thai media rarely touches and the public outing of Ven. George’s sexual orientation is probably a first for public television.

• [The issue is so controversial and potentially damaging to Thai monasticism that it could lead others to drop out or prevent some from joining as it would tarnish the venerable reputation of the institution -- in spite of the fact that insiders may have been aware of such monks in the past within the Sangha in the past. Thailand, like Rome and other Catholic countries, considers this its religion, so young men are expected to ordain to benefit their families. With such external motivations, it is no surprise to anyone that monastics fail to let go of sensuality, money, power, fame, and political influence; instead, they become powerful and often corrupt figures. But because there are some sincere practitioners, saints and ascetics, Thais give reverence and generous support to everyone in Buddhist robes. Kathoey members, far from being "liberal progress" in our Western eyes likely tarnishes the reputation of the institution doing more harm than good. There are many things that prevent one from full admission into the monastic Sangha, sexual orientation being only one. Someone with a skin condition or debt could not get in, in accordance with guidelines laid down by the Buddha.]

Mongkut was the King of Siam in Rogers and Hammerstein's "The King and I"

 

More than 95 percent of Thailand’s 67 million people are Theravada Buddhists. And although Thailand is a constitutional monarchy [with a beloved monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), 86, who is the longest reigning monarch in the world, an institution which gave rise to the American musical "The King and I" about a royal (Mongkut not Yul Brynner) who was himself a Buddhist monk or novice prior to ascending to the throne], it has a strong Southeast Asian tradition of Buddhist kingship that ties the legitimacy of the state to its protection and support for Buddhism.

 

Buddhist institutions and clergy are guaranteed special benefits by the government.

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Doubt, doubt, what about doubt?

Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines (kankhā); Ven. Ñanamoli, Discourse Setting Rolling the Wheel of Truth

Buddhist novices or samaneras (wellhappypeaceful.com)

 

Monastic doll, Thailand (ChristyB30/flickr)

"Doubt" (kankhā) may be either an intellectual uncertainty, or it may be a psychologically detrimental [persistent] skepticism.

The latter may manifest as wavering indecision, which impedes progress on the path. Or it may persist as negative skepticism, which is worse than indecision. 

 

Only this detrimental skeptical doubt (called vicikicchā) should be rejected and replaced. [This can be accomplished by cultivating confidence, faith, or saddha]. It is either useless, harmful, or very karmically unwholesome. It paralyzes thinking and hinders inner development. [It is one of the Five Hindrances to meditation and enlightenment.]
 

Reasoned, critical doubt in dubious matters [when it leads to investigation] is to be encouraged.

 

The 16 doubts enumerated in the sutras (e.g., MN 2 or Middle Length Discourses, second sutra) are the following:
 

Wondering and wondering would keep one revolving in fruitless doubt (Nyanamoli)

1. Have I been in the past [in past lives]?
2. Have I not been in the past?
3. What have I been in the past?
4. How have I been in the past?
5. From what state into what state did I change in the past? 
6. Shall I be in the future?
7. Shall I not be in the future?
8. What shall I be in the future?
9. How shall I be in the future?
10. From what state into what state shall I change in the future?
11. Am I?
12. Am I not?
13. What am I?
14. How am I?
15. From whence has this being come?
16. Where will it go?"

The way to confidence

Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Four ways of developing confidence and wisdom are also enumerated throughout the texts. For example, in the Buddha's first discourse ("Turning the Wheel of the Dharma," SN 56.11, see below), he focused on Four Ennobling Truths:

1. What is suffering?
2. What is the cause of suffering?
3. What is the cessation of suffering?
4. What is the way to the cessation of suffering?

These contemplations, particularly when undertaken immediately after emerging from the purifying meditative-absorptions (jhanas) are a source of progress: They lead to direct knowledge, to liberating insight, to complete emancipation (nirvana). They are ennobling inasmuch as they lead to noble attainments.

In that case, What is this thing we translate as "suffering," a translation that leads to so much confusion and debate about whether or not "all conditioned existence is suffering"? The Buddha defines the technical term in the following sutra. We try to avoid confusion by translating the very broad Sanskrit/Pali term dukkha as "disappointment" or "unsatisfactory." For all conditioned existence is unsatisfactory.

The True Wheel

Ven. Ñanamoli Thera, Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Discourse Setting Rolling the Wheel of Truth (SN 56.11). Alternate translations by Harvey and Ven. Piyadassi

The Buddha delivering the first sutra or "sermon" to the five ascetics (and countless devas) in the Deer Park, in the suburbs of ancient Varanasi, India

 
Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Benares in the Deer Park at Isipatana (the "Resort of Seers"). There he addressed the group of five ascetics [his former companions prior to his enlightenment].

 

"These two extremes ought not to be cultivated by one gone forth from the household life. What are the two? There is devotion to indulgence of pleasure in the objects of sensual desire, which is inferior, low, vulgar, ignoble, and leads to no good. And there is devotion to self-torment [self-mortification, severe asceticism, insane austerities as distinct from the 13 Sane Ascetic Practices], which is painful, ignoble, and leads to no good.

 

"The middle way discovered by a Tathagata ["Wayfarer," Welcome One," "Well Gone One"] avoids both of these extremes; it gives vision, it gives knowledge, and it leads to peace, to direct acquaintance, to discovery, to nirvana. What is that middle way?

It is simply the Noble Eightfold Path, that is to say, right view, right intention; right speech, right action, right livelihood; right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

 

What is "suffering"?

"The noble truth of suffering is this: Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering, sorrow and lamentation (crying), pain, grief, and despair are suffering; association with the loathed is suffering, dissociation from the loved is suffering, not to get what one wants is suffering -- in short, suffering is the Five Aggregates of Clinging.

 

"The noble truth of the cause (origin) of suffering is: It is the craving [clinging, attachment based on ignorance of how things really are] that produces renewal of being accompanied by enjoyment and lust, enjoying this and that -- in other words, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for [eternal-] existence, or craving for non-existence [annihilation].

 

"The noble truth of the cessation (end) of suffering is: It is the remainderless fading and ceasing, giving up, relinquishing, letting go, and rejecting [by insight not willpower] of this craving [which is always rooted in ignorance].

 

"The noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering is: It is simply the Noble Eightfold Path....

 

"'The noble truth of suffering is this.' Such was the vision, the knowledge, the understanding, the finding, the light that arose in regard to ideas not heard by me before. 

"'The noble truth of suffering can be diagnosed.' Such was the vision, the knowledge, the understanding, the finding, the light that arose in regard to ideas never before heard by me. 

"'The noble truth of suffering has been diagnosed.' Such was the vision, the knowledge, the understanding, the finding, the light that arose in regard to ideas never before heard by me.

 

"'The noble truth of origin of suffering is this.' Such was the vision... 'This origin of suffering, as a noble truth, can be abandoned.' Such was the vision... More

Buddhist nomads of India (photos)

Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; photographer Dietmar Temps (flickr.com)

Nomadic Buddhist children in Himalayan Ladakh, India (DietmarTemps/flickr.com)

Lamayuru monastery under a full moon, Ladakh, Himalayas (dietmartemps.com)

  

Changtang in Ladakh (Buddhist India in the Himalayas) is the home of the Changpa nomads, a semi-nomadic Tibetan ethnic group.

When the nomadic children grow older, they are lucky to get the chance to attend school, usually a year-around boarding school. Their parents would welcome the opportunity of a better life afforded by the education.

Although their elders are proud of their traditions, they realize that the new generation will probably not follow the difficult nomadic life once they have an easier option. Childhood education opens up the possibility of a job in the capital of Leh or other cities in Ladakh, the "rooftop of the world."

• PHOTO GALLERY

On the one hand from the viewpoint of a tourist it is, of course, a bit sad that the traditions of the nomadic people might disappear entirely in the future. But it is completely understandable that nomads might also like to participate in the educational system to get a fair share of a growing economy.

On the other hand, there is almost no industry in Ladakh, other than the tourist industry. Many of the youth work in the sprawling tourism business in their early 20s. But the season in Ladakh, perched high in the Himalayas, is very short. The tourism industry cannot offer all of the people good jobs to earn enough money to raise a family.

When I asked young people about their dreams, I often got the answer of dreams of office jobs in public administration. Only a desperate few would consider going into the military, which has a presence in Ladakh as India attempts to fend off China to the north and Pakistan to the west.

Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, northern India

The days when a family's youngest son inevitably started life as a Buddhist novice (samanera) in a local monastery (gompa) are over. These are interesting developments in Ladakh, in general, not only for the nomadic children of Changtang. More